Paddy Boyle eager to avoid more late title drama with Peterhead

Peterhead defender Paddy Boyle is desperate not to be involved in more late title drama – after living the tension first-hand a year ago.

Boyle was part of the Ayr United squad that won League 1 on the final day of last season, with victory over Albion Rovers enough to send them up at the expense of Raith Rovers.

The Honest Men had been to-ing and fro-ing with Raith for the majority of the campaign, much in the same way Peterhead have been grappling with Edinburgh City at the top of League 2 since the start of the season.

Clyde have also joined the title picture too and Boyle, who also won promotion with Ayr in 2016, is eager to avoid any last-minute drama this time around.

He said: “Hopefully we’ll have pulled away by then but it’s very tight between three teams. It could go down to the last day of the season, so the sooner we start picking up wins the better. We need to get four or five on the trot and get back to the top.

“At one stage we were four or five points clear of Raith, then ended up seven points behind. You’ve got to have a calmness when you’re not playing well, that you have the quality which will shine through. There’s boys that have been in this position before.”

The Blue Toon head into this afternoon’s game with Queen’s Park four points adrift of leaders Edinburgh but with two games in hand. Clyde are two points behind Jim McInally’s side but also have two games in hand on the league-leaders.

Peterhead have yet to defeat Queen’s Park this season, drawing with them on the opening day and losing 2-0 at Hampden Park in November.

Boyle added: “They’ve given us two tough tests already this season. They’re well organised and get in your face and that’s something we need to combat.

“We’ve lost a couple of games where we haven’t played that well, so we need to get back to winning and match physically what they have to offer.

“The front three that started Saturday – Ryan Dow, Rory McAllister and Shane Sutherland – have a lot of goals in them. If the rest of the team does their jobs – keeping clean sheets and creating chances for them – they should be able to win us games.”